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He
said there was a single shot and the bullet then hit a nearby car, which
was left with a bullet hole.

The witness said he and other guards called to the police at a nearby checkpoint and they cordoned off the area.

Scene: Mr Horner was shot in the affluent Wazir Akbar Khan district (pictured) of Kabul, which is home to several embassies and media organisations

The
attack came two months after the Islamic militant movement staged
a suicide bombing and shooting assault against a Lebanese restaurant
that killed 13 foreigners and eight Afghans in the same area.

Suicide
bombings and other attacks are frequent in Kabul and elsewhere in
Afghanistan as insurgents fight to undermine confidence in the
Western-backed government.

But assassinations of journalists and other foreigners in the capital are relatively rare.

Mr Horner had worked for Swedish Radio SR since 2001 as a foreign correspondent mostly in Asia and the Middle East

Not
including Horner, at least 29 journalists have been killed in
Afghanistan since 1992, most of them after the 2001 U.S.-led ouster of
the Taliban, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists.

Sayed Gul
Agha Hashimi, the head of the Kabul Criminal Investigation Department,
said police were questioning the journalist's driver and translator as
part of the investigation.

Hashimi said the journalist died while being treated at the hospital.

Swedish Embassy counselor Christian Nilsson said the body had been transported to the morgue.

Anne Lagercrantz, head of news at Swedish Radio, said the newsroom was in deep shock.

She said Horner spoke to the desk in Stockholm early on Tuesday and they agreed that he would go out and do interviews ahead of the April 5 presidential election.

When people in the newsroom saw reports that a foreign journalist had been shot in Kabul, they tried to contact Horner by email but got no response.

They then called his mobile phone, and a doctor answered saying Horner had been shot and killed, Lagercrantz said.

Swedish Radio chief executive Cilla Benko said two men approached Horner and shot him in the back of his head.

Benko said Horner was very safety conscious but was prepared to take risks.

'This was his life,' Benko said. 'He didn't want to do anything else.'

Swedish Radio officials said there were no known threats to Horner.

The attack came as security in the capital was tight amid fears of violence in connection with the funeral of Afghanistan's powerful Vice President Mohammed Qasim Fahim.